Islamabad
Production in industrial sector is being compromised for the sake of unrealistic revenue targets, which is not in the national interests, said Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Saturday. It said that the IMF conditions have resulted in negative growth in important sectors of the economy while tax measures have made life difficult for the masses and the business community. The interest rate is kept one percent above then the desire of IMF which has damaged the economy and pushed many industries in the ICU, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW. He said that compression of imports has saved four billion dollars but inflicted a revenue loss of Rs200 billion in five months while reduced GDP by tens of billions. Discouraging imports has left many industries closed resulting in massive unemployment, loss of revenue and runaway inflation, he said. Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that economy and the masses are paying the price of policies of the central bank which will result in a revenue loss of almost Rs500 billion for the whole year. He said that failure to achieve unrealistically high revenue targets has resulted in squeezing of the business community and blocking of refunds which is hitting export industry badly. Dr. Mughal noted that all the economic experts who negotiated a deal with IMF were well aware of the ground realities but they agreed to conditions which were damaging to the economy which is shocking.—INP
